The present invention relates to air conditioner systems for automotive vehicles which are capable of conditioning a front-seat part and a rear-seat part, separately, of the vehicle passenger compartment. More particularly, it relates to such an air conditioner system capable of automatically controlling the temperature of air to be blown into the rear-seat part.
Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 57-96013 discloses a vehicle air conditioner system wherein two separate air conditioner units are disposed on the front-seat side and the rear-seat side, respectively, of the passenger compartment. The disclosed system is disadvantageous in that the front air conditioner unit is substantially useless in conditioning the rear-seat side, resulting in a wastefull air conditioner system as a whole.
In order to eliminate the foregoing drawback, there have been proposed such air conditioner systems as shown in Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-7486 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 57-167819. The system shown in the former publication includes a front-seat air conditioner unit wherein at least one partition wall is disposed in a main duct downstream of an evaporator to define a plurality of chambers, and heater cores are disposed in the respective chambers, air mix doors being provided in front of the respective heater cores. In the system shown in the latter publication, a heater core in a main duct is subdivided into two portions downstream of which are provided two air flow passages separated by a partition wall, and air mix doors are provided in front of the heater core portions to control the temperature of air passing through the air flow passages. The disclosed air conditioner systems include an electric controller for controlling the openings of the respective air mix doors. A drawback common to both systems is however in that the main duct is complex in structure due to a plurality of chambers disposed downstream of the heater core.